"Romance, grief, mental health, living with a long-term condition - this romantic YA charmer has tremendous heart and depth"
Shortlisted for The Branford Boase Award 2024 | Shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2024 | April 2023 Debut of the Month
Both instantly engaging and finely nuanced, The First Move is a YA romance with real-life resonance and uplifting vibes. Always honest on the realities of living with a long-term condition and mental health struggles, it’s also happy-making, wholesome, and a whole lot of fun, with well-developed characters readers will root for and relate to.
With the support of her loving family, soon-to-be-eighteen-year-old Juliet is getting to grips with her arthritis. That said, she tends to take a back seat when it comes to socialising with her schoolmates, often opting to stay home to play chess online rather than be singled out at parties as the “girl with crutches”.
Meanwhile, new boy Ronan (“all cheek bones, blue eyes and floppy hair”) is struggling to come to terms with what happened to his tipped-for-Cambridge older brother. Like Juliet, he takes solace in playing chess on an online forum. Little do they know (to begin with, at least) that the flirtatious friendships they’ve struck up with online chess-mates could become a real-life romance…
With a thrilling will-they-won’t-they rollercoaster ride of a plot revealing their respective struggles through a compelling dual narrative, The First Move is that story that’ll move readers while putting great big grins on their faces.
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